5 Mods That Dailying My Stock Nissan 200SX Makes Me Wish For

Although I have no intention of changing anything on my proudly standard-ish S13, I’ve been playing a game of ‘what if?’
5 Mods That Dailying My Stock Nissan 200SX Makes Me Wish For

If you read my last piece about my Nissan 200SX, you might be surprised to hear that I’ve been thinking about modifications. Because of a change in circumstances I’ve been daily driving my S13 for the past six weeks, and it’s given me a new perspective.

You see, when I was only driving it on the occasional weekend its quirks and features were fun to explore, but when you are faced with them every day they can start to grate.

So I’ve been thinking, if I was to start chopping and changing my S13 to make it exactly how I want it, what would I do?

Suspension overhaul

5 Mods That Dailying My Stock Nissan 200SX Makes Me Wish For

My biggest criticism of the S13’s technical ability is also one of the things I enjoy when I’m not driving it regularly, and that’s the way it rolls in corners.

While it’s a fun challenge to keep the car in a flowing rhythm, faced with it every day I’m left longing for just a bit more rigidity and faster responses. An uprated suspension system would go a long way to remedying this, as well as dropping the ride height a bit, the one thing about the exterior look that bugs me. Add in some strut braces and I think we’d be almost perfect.

Steering wheel bush

5 Mods That Dailying My Stock Nissan 200SX Makes Me Wish For

Urgency is something I keep mentioning, but the S13’s laziness to respond is my biggest bugbear. When you turn the wheel there’s a slight delay; a softness to its response. A bit of Googling turned up a stainless steel bush that can replace the S13’s rubber one. For £20 delivered I might do that now, actually…

Seating

5 Mods That Dailying My Stock Nissan 200SX Makes Me Wish For

The driving position in the S13 is absolutely spot on. You sit low in the car and because the cabin is so light and airy you still get great visibility.

However, the seats are pretty awful, offering little-to-no lateral support and being about as comfortable as sitting on a church pew. If I didn’t care so much about everything being ‘correct’ I’d be scouring eBay for something more supportive and cosseting to replace it.

Stock engine mounts

5 Mods That Dailying My Stock Nissan 200SX Makes Me Wish For

When I first got the car, one of the few things that needed fairly prompt attention were the engine mounts. At the time I couldn’t find any stock ones, and the Nismo set were way too expensive, so I went for a set of Vibratechnics mounts – either way, aftermarket ones were going to be stiffer.

When you’re giving it some welly I adore how they transform the character of the car, giving it a real sense of urgency and making the whole car feel alive. However, when you’re dailying it, the fact that it makes the trim rattle at lower revs starts to grate. I guess this counts as an un-modification, but it’s a tempting one. That, or spend a day finding every part that rattles and fixing them…

In-car entertainment

5 Mods That Dailying My Stock Nissan 200SX Makes Me Wish For

It’s not just performance-related modifications that have been on my mind. In the pursuit of creating the ‘stockest’ S13 around I found the original stereo on eBay and will fit it as soon as I manage to get the ancient and wholly crap Sony CD player out.

While the cassette player looks cool and I’m looking forward to going to a charity shop to find some old tapes, what I really want is a modern head-unit with uprated speakers. Originally I planned to get a modern unit with retro styling, but I can’t find any that aren’t ludicrously expensive. Old school it is, then.

Comments

Cody's Car Conundrum

Whoa! Been a very long time since you’ve posted on here, haha.

The one mod I’d do right now (original; or not) would probably be the steering. Then the seats.

Edit: Just saw that you’ve been posting a bit recently. Looks like I’m just late, lol.

05/28/2018 - 18:01 |
96 | 0
Szymek Slusarczyk

The one thing I’d like to mod in my Tigra is changing the car into a bunch of money and buying an E36 with it. It’s a really great mod, that makes driving the Tigra sooo much better and more enjoyable

05/28/2018 - 18:15 |
72 | 0

Why not do that? E36s are prety cheap everywhere

05/28/2018 - 21:55 |
0 | 0
......

you could buy this aswelll

05/28/2018 - 19:07 |
38 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by ......

Just buy a few because they tend to stop working. But generally are quite cheap so its not too bad

05/28/2018 - 19:42 |
10 | 0

Not authentic…

05/28/2018 - 20:05 |
0 | 10
David 27

I’d touch it but only to be able to revert it back to stock. Coilovers might be a good investion. You don’t need to slam it to the ground and neither do you need to put them on the hardest setting. It could be the age showing on the coilovers, mine after 182.000 kms(~110k miles) are pretty worn down and could need a replacement. Bushings are also a great investment, after 25 years they are also old and hard.

05/28/2018 - 19:08 |
12 | 2
Anonymous

[DELETED]

05/28/2018 - 19:27 |
12 | 16
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Stop already, this meme died ages ago

05/28/2018 - 20:39 |
20 | 4
5:19.55

Cassette player 🙌

05/28/2018 - 20:06 |
8 | 0
Anonymous

Handily, there’s no shortage of Eurobeat Cassette Tapes, so you can most definitely get your groove on

05/28/2018 - 21:20 |
2 | 0
prizrak

Buy a 350z ;)
Steering feel is going to be crap regardless unless you wanna swap to a manual rack, 90s power steering is just never going to be good no matter what the car is.
For seats the most common mod is putting in 350z seats, they have pretty good bolstering and don’t look out of place like an aftermarket seat would.
For headunit get a modern one with all the cool features, they are easy to install and with the correct theme won’t look out of place (didn’t in my late 90s Subaru)
Interior rattles are par for the course for something that old, hell my 2011 Xterra and 2012 Mustang have em on stock engine/trans/w/e else mounts, it’s the price you pay for “cheap” cars.

05/28/2018 - 22:05 |
2 | 2

“Hey I see you like your Ford F150, you should buy a Chevy Silverado instead!”

05/29/2018 - 13:40 |
8 | 2
UnknownCat13

Do the mods and when you go to sell the car remove all of them and resell a completely standard car, like the one you have now (minus engine mounts)

05/29/2018 - 08:16 |
2 | 0
Nishant Dash

c o i l o v e r s. And. w h e e l s

05/29/2018 - 14:37 |
8 | 0

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